Posted
by
CmdrTaco
on Sunday October 22, 2006 @10:47AM
from the halloween-is-coming dept.

Malfourmed writes "Step by step instructions for making the ultimate comic book geek jewelery — Green Lantern's power ring. Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner and Alan Scott variations all included. Now someone find me a Katma Tui or Arisia to go with it, and we might just have ourselves a proposal!" The bigger problem of course is that there's no battery available to charge it, so it's just costume jewelry. Anyone have other good costume ideas?

I don't think you even need the "directed at right-wing targets" bit--there may be intentionally funny rightwingers but Rush Limbaugh is not one of them. But what you're trying to actually say is true--he never says anything negative about a right-winger who hasn't already been declared apostate.

For whatever reason, Electroluminescent lights usually require a large power converter... alot (all?) EL wire is AC powered, so you need a DC-to-AC power converter, and a large battery pack to power the assembly.

An LED + Watch Battery will consume very little space. You could fit all of the wiring inside the ring.

Extra-geek points for painting the ring's details using phosphorescent paint and an Ultraviolet LED to make the paint glow;)

All EL light sources run on AC. A lot of the older ones can actually work fine plugged into 110VAC, which of course is how the EL nightlights are made. They just connect the panel's leads directly to the mains leads. However to get full brightness you need to run a higher frequency. IIRC the old ones ran at about 400Hz, not sure what CCFLs do. CCFLs also need a higher voltage to start, and can then drop to a running voltage which draws less power, but I forget what the voltages in question are. I want to sa

I'll stick with my MOTU Warrior's Ring. It was an included accesory with Trap-Jaw [he-man.org] in the 80's. Not only does it glow in the dark, it also has a little compartment inside where you can store tiny notes. Sure the compartment is not as large as the pocket on a pair KangaROOS [wikipedia.org], but there's enough room in there to store your locker combo, or a reminder to buy more Hubba Bubba [wikipedia.org].

This is Slashdot; I was really expecting (hope springs infernal) an article, however shoddy and silly, about how somebody put an LED and lens into a ring to make it give off Green Lantern's light.

A number of years ago, a costumer friend of mine made a Lens for a Gray Lensman costume -- bezel crammed full of electronics and LEDs to so that it would light up and ripple colors across its face. It generated a fair amount of heat and was uncomfortable to wear for any length of time when lit up.

Post Columbian American ball sports. Can't stand 'em. I've played the precolumbian kind in precolumbian courts. Obviously I'm not very good at them though; I'm still alive (they were a winner lose all affair).

Oh, and I've never played double reeds. Maybe this winter I'll make an oboe or something.

My father was a jewelry maker and my mother a ceramicist. They often combined their talents in copper enamel work. From where I'm sitting I've got a clear Nerf(tm) pisto

The point is, this is a subject that a quick visit to the library or simple Google query could turn up plenty of results on. It's not surprising, new or unusual. It's a bit like posting how to boil an egg... there are people who could benefit, but the subject is common enough to not warrant a post.

This is like an Ask Slashdot "How do I format a hard drive?". Yes, it's something that many people don't know how to do, but it's also not hard to find the information how, and it is quite common. Same goes f

This isn't just a cute parody. This is from an Alan Moore [wikipedia.org] Green Lantern story where they tried to recruit someone to the Corps who lived in a lightless world. The inhabitants had no word for "light" or "lantern", so they translated the concept to that of sound... which these inhabitants were intimiately more familiar with.

Yeah, it may be cheaper, but if you don't want this ring enough to make it youself, why would you want it at all? It serves no purpose aside from establishing geek cred, which is then taken away by virtue of you having bought it. A computer is something with a legitimate purpose and necessity, yet around here it's blasphemy to admit that you bought a pre-made system rather than building your own. For little things like this, the fun is in making them yourself. You could buy a pre-constructed enterprise model to hang from your ceiling, but if you're going to do that, wouldn't you rather get the 1000 peice model with the LEDs and fiberoptic lights to build yourself?

Waaay OT, but once upon a time, I did have an Enterprise model similar to what you describe. It had blinking lights and made torpedo sounds and everything. I was so proud when I had finally completed the model... until I found out that the base wasn't weighted enough and the model was really, really top heavy. After about the third time our housekeeper knocked it over and broke it, I gave up, trashed it, and just bought a freakin' poster instead.My point is that one may not need that so

Yeah, it may be cheaper, but if you don't want this ring enough to make it youself, why would you want it at all? It serves no purpose aside from establishing geek cred, which is then taken away by virtue of you having bought it.

By the same logic, a comic book serves no purpose aside from establishing geek cred, which is then taken away by virtue of having bought it.

Some people just don't have the time, inclination, equipment, money, or skill to make things themselves. There's nothing wrong with buying thi

I haven't seen a laptop that isn't premade so I don't think that counts. Although you get special geekpoints if you find a company that sells them with no OS on them so you don't have to pay the Microsoft Fine.

Honestly, I don't know why anyone bothers - it's not exactly complicated to snap together commodity components these days, and it isn't like it's hard to find a good shop that'll build you exactly what you want AND d

It would be cool if we could cast rings from a material that was entirely a battery, then enamel it with an insulator, and mount LEDs on the surface, connected thru the insulator to the battery. Maybe two halves, separated by an inside insulator, and bridged by the LED. Maybe with a small airgap in the insulator, so squeezing the ring closed the circuit.

And how about some chips in there, too? A socketed LED, swapped out for a recharger? Swapped out for a photoreceptor for recharging under bright lights (or Sun + magnifying glass)? Dual-use LED/photoreceptor? Frickin' lasers?

Maybe this is how the Green Lantern's alien outfitters came up with the tech: reading Slashdot. Something about that color scheme looks familiar...

Get dissimilar metals into the design somehow with a current path in between, and you have the equivalent of a "potato battery". You can get a few milliamps, enough to run an LED. Next: is skin conductive enough to bridge the dissimilar metals? If so, can you change the brightness with galvanic skin response? Think mood ring, only way cooler.

I envision a geek approaching the girl he likes, getting sudden sweaty palms, getting a jolt through his nervous system and then going into a grand mal seizure, complete with loss of bowel function and projectile vomiting.

Kind of like how I pictured Steve Mann going down in a supersoaker fight.

I'm with the responder to the original article that wanted a http://www3.flickr.com/photos/saldana/234320198 [flickr.com]Leg ion Flight Ring instead. Yes, a Green Lantern ring is a superset of a Flight Ring functionalitywise, but I'd rather be a Legionnaire. DC sold one about 15 years ago but it was pretty crummy, alas.

If I was going through the trouble to do this, I'd definitely do it in something other than Al. Maybe brass, or even bronze, which should be as easy to melt as AL. Maybe not as authentic looking, but a lot classier.

Or if your must have it green, then make it copper and let it oxidize; prepare to have your finger turn green too.

if you are not so good with a dremel too but possess even minimal 3D modeling skills why not check out 3D printing. For something as small as a ring it wouldn't be too much $$$ and you have the ultimate control over the shape... say it won't be a big deal to include a battery compartment and an LED mount

Given the lack of connections to the Oa battery, can't you possibly get its green energy from kryptonite? At least that stuff is found on THIS planet. An added bonus is that it can help you ensure that you are the only superhero guarding sector 2814.

What is this ? The fashion channel or a website where you can discuss technology, computers and have a pop at the actions of the US Administration. Honestly if I was even remotely interested in rings I'd visit a jewelers.

Without using Google, how many people know of any jeweler tool supply shops?

I do, Lacy and Company in Toronto, Ontario. But, ok, a little while ago I was looking at what would be involved in doing a small scale casting project, so I made a point of checking out Toronto, Ontario area metal suppliers and jewelry supply shops.

As for Lacy and Company, it is nice little shop that one will NOT find by accident (basement level of a small downtown office building). Still, kind of cute to wander around the stor

When I first read "Now someone find me . . . Arisia to go with it", my first thought was that I'd really like to have a Lens of Arisia, as described in E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman novels. The Lensmen are almost certainly the predecessors of the Green Lanterns, if not in actuality, then in philosophy and form.

Stories fro the Lens universe almot certainly were the inspriation for the Green Lantern series, as well as for Star Wars (I wish Lucas had just made the Lens stories direclty into movies, instead of giving them a Hollywood haircut and making the watered down Star Wars versions). I've always wanted a Lens too - that's probably why I wear the bigges, gawdiest writwatch possible - a Rolex GMT master. THis turnip sized watch has a real lensy feel to it.

Slash dot has really slid into uselessness for the most part, and this kind of article is a great example of the crap I have been seeing of late here. Slashdot, clean up your moderation, your quality of articles.

This project might be a lot more accessible to folks by using PMC (precious-metal clay). It's pure silver in a formable plastic base, much like modeling clay. A two-part mold could be created from Fimo, Premo, Sculpey, or some other modeling compound. The mold would be baked and dried and the PMC would then be formed within it. Once dried to a sort of rubbery hardness, the PMC can then be heated (called sintering) according to manufacturer's directions with a soldering or brazing torch. The clay base disapp

From The Summary:>>Anyone have other good costume ideasI can think of 2 that I've wanted for a while:

1. A lightsaber that feels more or less 'real', looks real (meaning that it glows) and can be used for duelling. No really....I'd pay $200 for one out of my entertainment budget if I knew that I could rough around with it. The current generation of 'realistic' light sabers, I believe, aren't intended for sparring.

2. A Bat'leh (bad spelling...a Klingon Sword). IMHO, this is the most badass TV/Movie weap

If you want a professional piece, ask Russ Sharek of the Morpheus Company [dare2dream.com], custom jeweller to the eclectic. He does completely unique piece-work and has had some fairly esoteric clients. He did this impressive fibre-optic based Green Lantern ring [dare2dream.com] for Harlan Ellison.

I don't get it. Why would you want a lantern hanging from your ring? And a green one on top of that..

I think the lantern on the Alan Scott ring is a replica of the lantern that was used to charge his ring. It is green because that was the color of the metal used to form the ring, and Scott was guided to give the ring that form when he created it. The form of the ring's charger, in turn, was based on a old railroad lantern. Scott wears a logo on his chest of the same type of lantern.

The rings that Jordan and Stewart wear (and Rayner used to wear) are based on the Green Lantern icon worn on the uniform, and reflects the central power battery on Oa. The reason Rayner's ring looks different is that his ring was an improved version with no yellow weakness and no 24 hour time limit on its charge. He is the only Lantern that comes to mind that has a ring of that design, the other Lanterns wear a ring of the Jordan/Stewart design.

Rayner recently evolved as a Green Lantern, becoming The Ion. His ring and power has been internalized and he is much more powerful than the other Green Lanterns. He is the next step in the evolution of the Green Lantern Corps.

On the ring mentioned at the beginning of post, I like the design and think that it is how a green lantern ring would look in real life.

Actually Rayner's ring along with Stewart's were just the same old tried-and-true ring technology as the Corps had already had for 10 billion years, but the reason it had no yellow weakness is because the yellow impurity was actually the immortal yellow alien being named Parallax who corrupted Hal Jordan and took over his mind. Parallax was living fear itself in some sense and so the Green Lantern power was corrupted over that spectrum of visible light. So you see in the graphic novel, Green Lantern : Rebirth, that the yellow weakness 'has a name' and that name is Parallax. Jordan/Spectre managed to purge Parallax from Jordan and then Jordan (resurrected), Rayner, Gardner, Stewart and Kilowog with the help of the Guardians cast Parallax back into the Green Lantern battery 'prison cell'.

So the end result is all the power rings (excluding of course Alan Scott's magic-based ring) are once again susceptible to a yellow weakness, but it caused by fear generated by the Parallax Fear Anomoly. So any powerful Green Lantern can overcome the yellow weakness now, but it is considered a mark of a novice Lantern to still have their constructs blocked by yellow.

I haven't read GL since I was a teenager (30+ years ago), but I was under the impression that originally, the yellow weakness was intentionally placed in the ring by the Guardians to give them a way to counter a Green Lantern gone rogue. Am I misremembering, or did they change the backstory as the DC universe evolved?

For all I know, the backstory now in place might be incompatible with explicit statements from 30 yrs ago. The whole Crisis on Infinte Worlds / Zero Hour / Infinite Crisis mega-story arcs retconned (altered the history of the DC universe) each time.

The current spin is that Parallax was a super-villain destroying planet after planet with fear, feeding off it, and the Guardians imprisoned him in the Battery and stripped him of his sentience billions of years ago. Since then the Guardians hid the fact that they did this because they didn't want any crazies to try to release Parallax. But recently, they imprisoned the renegade GL turn villain Sinestro inside the Battery, and while in there with his yellow power ring, he awoke Parallax. Then Parallax and Sinestro worked to take over Hal Jordan, and briefly turned Hal Jordan (to the outrage of nearly everyone) into a super-villain who single-handedly killed almost every single active Green Lantern in the universe and then destroyed the Battery, releasing the Fear Anamoly in full-force. He (that is, Parallax, which is how Hal Jordan became known) then tried to recreate the universe in his own image and started the Zero Hour story arc where Parallax kicked hte Justice League's butts time and again. But then Jordan's good side won over at the last minute and he saved the Earth from destruction by restarting the sun which had been "put out" by a Sun Eater intergallactic weapon.

Only two years ago or so, did it emerge that Jordan was possessed by Parallax. To the outrage of everyone, when the story arc was being played out, no mention was made of possession and it appeared that it was Hal Jordan himself of his own free will murdering Green Lanterns left and right.

But then Jordan's good side won over at the last minute and he saved the Earth from destruction by restarting the sun which had been "put out" by a Sun Eater intergallactic weapon.

The Sun Eater wasn't an intergalactic weapon. It was a space-living organism so large and so powerful that it could wipe out entire civilizations simply by going about its everyday life activities. It wasn't clear that the Sun Eater was aware of any beings less powerful than say, the Guardians, or Parallax. There was the food (

I think that this level of superhero-comics ignorance is grounds for revoking your Slashdot geek license, but OK. Green Lantern is a classic DC superhero, going back some 60-70 years. His power is a special ring that responds to his mental commands by creating anything he can imagine out of green energy; the ring must be recharged in a special battery shaped like an old style oil-lantern. The rings are actually creations of a super-advanced race of beings who believe in intergalactic justice, those who b